Microsoft Word Peter Pan doc

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"Have we been captained all this time by a codfish!" they muttered. "It is 
lowering to our pride."
They were his dogs snapping at him, but, tragic figure though he had 
become, he scarcely heeded them. Against such fearful evidence it was 
not their belief in him that he needed, it was his own. He felt his ego 
slipping from him. "Don't desert me, bully," he whispered hoarsely to it.
In his dark nature there was a touch of the feminine, as in all the great 
pirates, and it sometimes gave him intuitions. Suddenly he tried the 
guessing game.
"Hook," he called, "have you another voice?"
Now Peter could never resist a game, and he answered blithely in his own 
voice, "I have."
"And another name?"
"Ay, ay."
"Vegetable?" asked Hook.
"No."
"Mineral?"
"No."
"Animal?"
"Yes."
"Man?"
"No!" This answer rang out scornfully.
"Boy?"
"Yes."
"Ordinary boy?"
"No!"
"Wonderful boy?"

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To Wendy's pain the answer that rang out this time was "Yes."
"Are you in England?"
"No."
"Are you here?"
"Yes."
Hook was completely puzzled. "You ask him some questions," he said to 
the others, wiping his damp brow.
Smee reflected. "I can't think of a thing," he said regretfully.
"Can't guess, can't guess!" crowed Peter. "Do you give it up?"
Of course in his pride he was carrying the game too far, and the 
miscreants [villains] saw their chance.
"Yes, yes," they answered eagerly.
"Well, then," he cried, "I am Peter Pan."
Pan!
In a moment Hook was himself again, and Smee and Starkey were his 
faithful henchmen.
"Now we have him," Hook shouted. "Into the water, Smee. Starkey, mind 
the boat. Take him dead or alive!"
He leaped as he spoke, and simultaneously came the gay voice of Peter.
"Are you ready, boys?"
"Ay, ay," from various parts of the lagoon.
"Then lam into the pirates."
The fight was short and sharp. First to draw blood was John, who 
gallantly climbed into the boat and held Starkey. There was fierce 
struggle, in which the cutlass was torn from the pirate's grasp. He 
wriggled overboard and John leapt after him. The dinghy drifted away.
Here and there a head bobbed up in the water, and there was a flash of 
steel followed by a cry or a whoop. In the confusion some struck at their 

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own side. The corkscrew of Smee got Tootles in the fourth rib, but he was 
himself pinked [nicked] in turn by Curly. Farther from the rock Starkey 
was pressing Slightly and the twins hard.
Where all this time was Peter? He was seeking bigger game.
The others were all brave boys, and they must not be blamed for backing 
from the pirate captain. His iron claw made a circle of dead water round 
him, from which they fled like affrighted fishes.
But there was one who did not fear him: there was one prepared to enter 
that circle.
Strangely, it was not in the water that they met. Hook rose to the rock to 
breathe, and at the same moment Peter scaled it on the opposite side. 
The rock was slippery as a ball, and they had to crawl rather than climb. 
Neither knew that the other was coming. Each feeling for a grip met the 
other's arm: in surprise they raised their heads; their faces were almost 
touching; so they met.
Some of the greatest heroes have confessed that just before they fell to 
[began combat] they had a sinking [feeling in the stomach]. Had it been 
so with Peter at that moment I would admit it. After all, he was the only 
man that the Sea-Cook had feared. But Peter had no sinking, he had one 
feeling only, gladness; and he gnashed his pretty teeth with joy. Quick as 
thought he snatched a knife from Hook's belt and was about to drive it 
home, when he saw that he was higher up the rock that his foe. It would 
not have been fighting fair. He gave the pirate a hand to help him up.
It was then that Hook bit him.
Not the pain of this but its unfairness was what dazed Peter. It made him 
quite helpless. He could only stare, horrified. Every child is affected thus 
the first time he is treated unfairly. All he thinks he has a right to when 
he comes to you to be yours is fairness. After you have been unfair to 
him he will love you again, but will never afterwards be quite the same 
boy. No one ever gets over the first unfairness; no one except Peter. He 
often met it, but he always forgot it. I suppose that was the real 
difference between him and all the rest.
So when he met it now it was like the first time; and he could just stare, 
helpless. Twice the iron hand clawed him.

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A few moments afterwards the other boys saw Hook in the water striking 
wildly for the ship; no elation on the pestilent face now, only white fear, 
for the crocodile was in dogged pursuit of him. On ordinary occasions the 
boys would have swum alongside cheering; but now they were uneasy, 
for they had lost both Peter and Wendy, and were scouring the lagoon for 
them, calling them by name. They found the dinghy and went home in it, 
shouting "Peter, Wendy" as they went, but no answer came save mocking 
laughter from the mermaids. "They must be swimming back or flying," 
the boys concluded. They were not very anxious, because they had such 
faith in Peter. They chuckled, boylike, because they would be late for 
bed; and it was all mother Wendy's fault!
When their voices died away there came cold silence over the lagoon, and 
then a feeble cry.
"Help, help!"
Two small figures were beating against the rock; the girl had fainted and 
lay on the boy's arm. With a last effort Peter pulled her up the rock and 
then lay down beside her. Even as he also fainted he saw that the water 
was rising. He knew that they would soon be drowned, but he could do 
no more.
As they lay side by side a mermaid caught Wendy by the feet, and began 
pulling her softly into the water. Peter, feeling her slip from him, woke 
with a start, and was just in time to draw her back. But he had to tell 
her the truth.
"We are on the rock, Wendy," he said, "but it is growing smaller. Soon the 
water will be over it."
She did not understand even now.
"We must go," she said, almost brightly.
"Yes," he answered faintly.
"Shall we swim or fly, Peter?"
He had to tell her.
"Do you think you could swim or fly as far as the island, Wendy, without 
my help?"

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She had to admit that she was too tired.
He moaned.
"What is it?" she asked, anxious about him at once.
"I can't help you, Wendy. Hook wounded me. I can neither fly nor swim."
"Do you mean we shall both be drowned?"
"Look how the water is rising."
They put their hands over their eyes to shut out the sight. They thought 
they would soon be no more. As they sat thus something brushed 
against Peter as light as a kiss, and stayed there, as if saying timidly, 
"Can I be of any use?"
It was the tail of a kite, which Michael had made some days before. It 
had torn itself out of his hand and floated away.
"Michael's kite," Peter said without interest, but next moment he had 
seized the tail, and was pulling the kite toward him.
"It lifted Michael off the ground," he cried; "why should it not carry you?"
"Both of us!"
"It can't lift two; Michael and Curly tried."
"Let us draw lots," Wendy said bravely.
"And you a lady; never." Already he had tied the tail round her. She clung 
to him; she refused to go without him; but with a "Good-bye, Wendy," he 
pushed her from the rock; and in a few minutes she was borne out of his 
sight. Peter was alone on the lagoon.
The rock was very small now; soon it would be submerged. Pale rays of 
light tiptoed across the waters; and by and by there was to be heard a 
sound at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the world: 
the mermaids calling to the moon.
Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A tremour 
ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea; but on the sea one 
shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and Peter felt 
just the one. Next moment he was standing erect on the rock again, with 

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that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was saying, "To 
die will be an awfully big adventure."

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